Sonja Leitner

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Senior Scientist Position at International Livestock Research Institute

Dryland ecosystems are the habitat supporting two billion people on the Earth planet and strongly impact the global terrestrial carbon sink. Vegetation growth in drylands is mainly controlled by water availability with strong intra-seasonal variability. Timely availability of information at such scales (e.g., from days to weeks) is essential for ea...

Changing water regimes (e.g. drought) have unknown long-term consequences on the stability and resilience of soil microorganisms who determine much of the carbon and nitrogen exchange between the biosphere and atmosphere. Shifts in their activity could feedback into ongoing climate change. In this study, we explored soil drought effects on soil gre...

Challenge Non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV), because of its key role in water, nutrient, and carbon cycling, is an essential variable to monitor in agroecosystems. Despite its importance, the literature about NPV quantification from satellite in rangeland systems, where NPV plays an important role for animal nutrition, is still limited. New gener...

Termites are a significant natural source of greenhouse gases (GHGs), but quantifying emissions especially from large termite mounds is problematic as they rarely fit in measurement chambers. Predicting fluxes based on internal and atmospheric concentrations could provide an indirect way to assess mound emissions, but developing such models necessi...

Livestock are an important source of livelihoods in agricultural systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), while also being the largest source of national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in most African countries. As a consequence, there is a critical need for data on livestock GHG sources and sinks to develop national inventories, as well as conduct bas...

Rice is gaining importance for nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa, but domestic production can only cover a fraction of the actual needs. Suboptimal fertilization limits production and affordable solutions are needed. It is, however, of utmost importance to minimize negative impacts on the environment and on soil health, which is largely determined by...

The use of night-time livestock enclosures, often referred to as "bomas", "corrals", or "kraals", is a common practice across African rangelands. Bomas protect livestock from predation by wildlife and potential theft. Due to the concentration of animal faeces inside bomas, they not only become nutrient-rich patches that can add to biodiversity, but...

We describe a new satellite data validation facility located in a savannah biome at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) Kapiti Research Station (Kenya). The facility is focused on satellite land surface temperature (LST) and is equipped with multiple ground-viewing infrared radiometers across four sites. The in-situ LST observatio...

This study provides methane (CH4) emission estimates for mature female African beef cattle in a semi-arid region in Southern Kenya using open-path laser spectroscopy together with a backward Lagrangian Stochastic (bLS) dispersion modeling technique. We deployed two open-path lasers to determine 10-min averages of line-integrated CH 4 measurements u...

CONTEXT The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented global disruption and continues to wreak havoc. Dire predictions were made about the risks to smallholder farmers in lower- and middle- income, but hard data have been lacking. We present the results from 9201 interviews with smallholder farmers from seven countries. OBJECTIVE The objectives are t...

Livestock excreta on pastures is an important source of nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions, however studies measuring these emissions in tropical regions, particularly Africa, remain limited. Therefore we measured N 2 O emissions from different quantities of dung patches during three observation periods (dry, wet and transition from dry to wet season)...

Global population projections foresee the biggest increase to occur in Africa with most of the available uncultivated land to ensure food security remaining on the continent. Simultaneously, greenhouse gas emissions are expected to rise due to ongoing land use change, industrialisation, and transport amongst other reasons with Africa becoming a maj...

Sisal (Agave sisalana) is a climate-resilient crop grown on large-scale farms in semi-arid areas. However, no studies have investigated soil greenhouse gas (GHGs: CO2, N2O and CH4) fluxes from these plantations and how they relate to other land cover types. We examined GHG fluxes (Fs) in a sisal chronosequence at Teita Sisal Estate in southern Keny...

CONTEXT Livestock are the primary source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture in most African countries, but there is a paucity of baseline data and monitoring of GHG emissions from livestock in Africa, particularly for extreme or shock events. The COVID-19 pandemic represents a novels shock to livestock systems and may result in indi...

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) rely on IPCC emission factors (EF) for GHG emission reporting. However, these were derived for industrialized livestock farms and do not represent conditions of smallholder farms (small, low-producing livestock breeds, poor feed quality, feed scarcity). Here, we present the first measurements of CH4 and N2O emi...

Protocol for developing regionally appropriate emission factors for CH4 and N2O emissions from cattle manure

This study provides methane (CH4) emission estimates for mature female African beef cattle in a semi-arid region in Southern Kenya using open-path laser spectroscopy together with a backward Lagrangian Stochastic (bLS) dispersion modeling technique. We deployed two open-path lasers to determine 10-minute averages of line-integrated CH4 measurements...

Dung and urine patches on grasslands are hotspots of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in temperate regions, while its importance remains controversial for tropical regions as emissions seem to be lower. Here we investigated N 2 O, CH 4 and CO 2 emissions from urine and dung patches on tropical pastures in Kenya, thereby disentangling interactive and...

In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the most important staple crop is maize; the production of which is dominated by smallholder farming systems using low external inputs (<10 kg N ha-1)resulting in low crop yields and large yield gaps (difference between actual and potential yields). To assess increases in soilN2O emissions when closing maize yield gaps...

AimsDecomposition of manure deposited onto pasture from grazing animals represents an important process for carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles in grassland systems. However, studies investigating manure decomposition are scarce; especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).Methods In this study, we measured decomposition of three types of animal manure (...

With climate change the occurrence of summer droughts is expected to increase in Central Europe. This could lead to increased nitrate (NO3⁻) leaching when water scarcity affects the N-uptake capacity of trees and increases soil N availability due to early leaf senescence and higher litter input. In the present study, we used 16 years of ecological...

Field measurement data on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are still scarce for many land-use types in Africa, causing a high level of uncertainty in GHG budgets. To address this gap, we present in situ measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and methane (CH4) emissions from the lowlands of southern Kenya. We conducted eight chambe...

For effective climate change mitigation strategies, adequate data on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from a wide range of land-use and land cover types area prerequisite. However, GHG field measurement data are still scarce for many land-use types in Africa, causing a high uncertainty in GHG budgets. To address this knowledge gap, we present in situ...

Urine and dung patches deposited by grazing cattle on grassland are an important source of nitrous oxide (N2O). While a number of studies have investigated the effects of excreta on soil N2O fluxes in developed economies and in China, observations in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are scarce. Moreover, the effects of soil properties (e.g. pH or texture)...

Global climate change is predicted to alter drought–precipitation patterns, which will likely affect soil microbial communities and their functions, ultimately shifting microbially-mediated biogeochemical cycles. The present study aims to investigate the simultaneous variation of microbial community compositions and functions in response to drought...

Global climate change is projected to continue and result in prolonged and more intense droughts, which can increase soil water repellency (SWR). To be able to estimate the consequences of SWR on vadose zone hydrology, it is important to determine soil hydraulic properties (SHP). Sequential modeling using HYDRUS (2D/3D) was performed on an experime...

Nitrogen (N) availability to plants in dry soil is limited by diffusive flux of N compounds through the soil solution towards the root surface. Conventional soil extraction procedures only provide information about bulk soil N concentrations, which can be distorted during soil sampling, transport, storage and extraction, and hence are of limited us...

Predicted changes in the intensity and frequency of climate extremes urge a better mechanistic understanding of the stress response of microbially mediated carbon (C) and nutrient cycling processes. We analyzed the resistance and resilience of microbial C, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) cycling processes and microbial community composition in dec...

Background and aims The litter layer is a major source of CO2, and it also influences soil-atmosphere exchange of N2O and CH4. So far, it is not clear how much of soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emission derives from the litter layer itself or is litter-induced. The present study investigates how the litter layer controls soil GHG fluxes and microbial de...

Climate change research predicts an increase in weather extremes like severe droughts and heavy rainfalls in central Europe. Since soil moisture is one of the most important drivers of soil respiration, a change in precipitation regime is likely to influence ecosystem C cycling. During drying of soils, soil microbial activity decreases and dead mic...

Core Ideas Rainfall redistribution increased soil water repellency in a beech forest soil Soil water repellency correlated with organic matter composition and C/N ratio Contact angles correlated with air‐entry value of hydraulic soil characteristics Climate change is expected to result in prolonged dry periods and an increased occurrence of extrem...

Microbes are major players in leaf litter decomposition and therefore advances in the understanding of their control on element cycling are of paramount importance. Our aim was to investigate the influence of leaf litter stoichiometry in terms of carbon (C) : nitrogen (N) : phosphorus (P) ratios on the decomposition processes and to track changes i...

Glucans like cellulose and starch are a major source of carbon for decomposer food webs, especially during early- and intermediate-stages of decomposition. Litter quality has previously been suggested to notably influence decomposition processes as it determines the decomposability of organic material and the nutrient availability to the decomposer...

Resource stoichiometry (C:N:P) is an important determinant of litter decomposition. However, the effect of elemental stoichiometry on the gross rates of microbial N and P cycling processes during litter decomposition is unknown. In a mesocosm experiment, beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) litter with natural differences in elemental stoichiometry (C:N:P) w...

Leaf litter decomposition is the breakdown of dead plant material, a terrestrial ecosystem process of paramount importance. Nutrients released during decomposition play a key role for microbial growth and plant productivity. These processes are controlled by abiotic factors, such as climate, and by biotic factors, such as litter nutrient concentrat...

Microbes are major players in leaf litter decomposition and therefore advances in the understanding of their control on element cycling are of paramount importance. Our aim was to investigate the influence of leaf litter stoichiometry in terms of carbon (C) : nitrogen (N) : phosphorus (P) on the decomposition process, and to follow changes in micro...